"Did You Ever Try Home-Casting Figures?" Topic

Yes to both. I don't remember what the metal mold was; it came with the casting set. I remember making molds that didn't work out, and one of a 25mm Dervish figure from a figure of the Soldiers of the Queen range (or something like that.) I almost never got the spears to cast right. I made about 100 of them to go with my hundreds of Ral Partha figures.

As a kid I had the Mattel Injector, a toy for the the Western toys. Plug the machine in, add plastic slugs, and use the two piece metal molds. Good times making decent cowboys, Indians, and horses, and a few burnt finger tips too

I got the Dow RTV, from an advertisement in, I think, the Courier.
The 2 part Silicone was extremely messy, and not cheap.
There was always something that wouldn't cast well.
Plus, I was afraid of how hot the melted metal was.
It probably didn't help that I melted old figures, instead of getting alloy metal specifically for home casting.
It was too frustrating to be fun, so I gave up on it.

My good friend and wargaming buddy did home casting but the figures were always not very crisp. He eventually melted them down to use with his Prince August molds. He's cast a very large number of 40mm late 18th century figures which we've used a number of times in games.

I tried it back in the late 1960s but wasn't very successful and didn't proceed with it. I gave the heater and ladle to my friend.

Jim

My grandson's 4th birthday is coming up in a month or two. Maybe I can find one of those old Mattel casting kits for him.
His mother says he has enough dinosaurs.

Tried it, unsuccessfully.

I seriously doubt that Jack Scruby encouraged home casting. Bad for business.

I did back in high school in a science class. They had the molds and I brought in the metal. Just one pose for the figures which I believe were Am Rev.

I had the Prince August demo set years ago, it was fun, but decided I didn't want to get into 54mm at the time.

Did PA fantasy Molds. Had OK successes. Could not get weapons and hands to come out decently. It was fun. I still have a bunch. I made 60 Wolves for a BoFA game -- the Goblin Riders were difficult to cast.

I'm interested in fantasy ship casting. Hope to make open-face molds for casting them. Had a friend who made RTV mold of GW figures in the late 90's and I could barely tell his from the GW! His air-dry RTV molds were quite good. Cheers!

I have and successful after a few tries but with resin not lead alloy.

I wanted more 1/32 AWI marching Brits (the original is in lead alloy) and I made a silicone mold then mixed the two part resin and it took a time or two to get the venting down but after the miniatures turned out very good.

Funny, or not so funny thing about that, I was pouring the resin in the mold on one of my production runs and my nose started running. I thought weird but kept going until I started dripping blood on the table. I never have bloody noses. Scary. I stopped molding with resin after that.

Funny. I'd completely forgotten. Prior to my "proper wargaming" days, someone sold rubber molds to make figues to go with an early SF TV show. "Tom Corbett, Space Cadet" possibly? I think they were plaster of Paris. We're gong back better than 60 years now.